New Capabilities Coming to Pointwise

We are putting the next release of Pointwise through our maintenance
release quality assurance process so it should be available soon. In
Version 17.2 R2 you will get twice the performance out of T-Rex's
(anisotropic tetrahedral extrusion) new hexahedral layer capability. And
even though V17.2 R2 is not even out the door, the overset grid assembly
features for V17.3 are finally settled and ready for pre-release
testing.

Looking further ahead along our roadmap, we have already begun laying
the groundwork for the broadest expansion of Pointwise's meshing
capabilities in the history of the company. Building on the new software
architecture designed into the Pointwise product, you will soon be able
to create the type of meshes in Version 18 that you never could before.

Version 17.2 R2

In this second revision of V17.2, you will find a major update to
T-Rex's hex layer capabilities first introduced in V17.2 R1. Recall that
T-Rex works by extruding layers of anisotropic tetahedra and then
agglomerating stacks of tetrahedra into prisms or hexes. Several
benefits were achieved by changing how the agglomeration algorithm
handles the first layer of hexahedra coming off a quad surface.

The change reduced the number of mesh cells on the extrusion front
with a corresponding reduction in run time for hex layer extrusion. For
our test suite as a whole, the reduction in run time was 33
percent.

The change introduced a simpler, less dense mesh topology on the
extrusion front which in turn makes the extrusion more robust. This
manifests itself as an increase in the number of hex and prism cells
created in the near-wall layers. This increase was in the range 7-17
percent for our test suite.

Third, the simpler mesh topology and increased cells in the
near-wall layers resulted in a 29 percent drop in the number of
isotropic tetrahedra in the farfield region for our test suite.

Figure 1 shows cuts through a hybrid mesh generated by the updated T-Rex
for the
NASA CRM
For this particular mesh the time required to generate the anisotropic
cells was reduced by 46 percent, the number of agglomerated cells
increased 15 percent, and the total number of cells for the overall mesh
was reduced by 20 percent relative to the previous version of T-Rex.

Figure 1: These cuts through a T-Rex hybrid mesh for NASA's CRM show the quad surface mesh (pink), hex layers (green), the transition to isotropic tets (cyan) and the symmetry plane (gray).

The following features are also included in V17.2 R2:

Align View to Surface:
The orientation of view in the Display window can
be aligned with the normal vector of any selected surface. Also, view
transitions to saved orientations can now be animated.

Figure 2: By selecting a surface point or entering numeric values, you can align the view so that you're looking down that normal vector.

Updated CAD File Readers:
In addition to implementing the latest
libraries from CT Core Technologies, our CAD interoperability partner,
the reader has been implemented as a separate process for improved
robustness.

Drawing Guide:
A drawing guide consisting of an array of vertical and
horizontal lines can be overlayed on the Display window as a visual aid
for aligning points on the screen for various operations. Also, the
option to disable snapping to a selected point (previously available
only in the Tweak command) has been added to all other commands that use
the 3D point placement tools.

Figure 3: The user-customizable Drawing Guide is a handy reference for aligning points when drawing in 3D.

New CAE Solver Support:
You now have native support for two additional
flow solvers:

Project Distribution:
You now have the option of projecting only a
connector's shape while retaining its distribution attributes.

Figure 4: Avoid connectors with “general” point distributions by projecting only the shape and preserving the distribution function and spacing constraints.

Save Selection:
Using the Save Selection As command, selected entities
(and all other entities on which they depend) can be written to a new PW
project file. With the Save Environment As command, all your
settings –
defaults, layers, properties, views, saved examine cuts, etc. but no
entities – can be written to a PW file for loading at
the beginning of a new project.

Scripted Entity Selection:
Two new Glyph commands give you more control
over entity selection. One command returns a list of the currently
selected entities. The other lets you specify which entities are
selected upon script termination.

Version 17.3

As you are probably aware, in 2013 we completed work on a two-year Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract (U.S. Air Force, Arnold
Engineering Development Complex, Air Force Materiel Command), during
which we added to Pointwise the ability to set up, execute, and
visualize overset grid assembly. This work was an extension of a
previous six-month contract that resulted in a similar, but smaller,
feature set in Gridgen.

This research code has now been fully integrated into the production
version of Pointwise and is on target for release in V17.3. Those of you
who are using or would like to use overset grids will find that the
overset grid assembly (OGA) process is now much more streamlined.

T-Rex hybrid meshes with the near-wall prism or hex layers are created
as a post-processing step from the original, extruded, anisotropic
tetrahedra. In other words, Pointwise stores T-Rex meshes in their
original, all-tet form.

Imagine if the code was accommodating of more mesh types.

The years of work that went in to the development of the Pointwise
product – Version 16 in 2007 and Version 17 in 2012 –
were focused on
improving user experience while keeping the meshing capabilities more or
less intact. However, behind the scenes we built a new core
infrastructure that gives us much more flexibility to broaden our mesh
support. With Version 18, you will see the payoffs of that new
architecture through an expanded menu of supported mesh types.

Imagine being able to

Generate an unstructured quad or quad dominant surface mesh and grow hex layers off of it using T-Rex.

Save your hybrid mesh with the full mix of cell types so that you can verify the mesh quality prior to exporting it for your flow solver.

Imagine what other capabilities this new flexibility will offer.

If you want to hear – and more importantly, see – the details
of these
new developments, please join us at the Pointwise User Group Meeting
2014 coming up on 29-30 October in Anaheim, California. You'll see our
imagination at work.

Try Pointwise Yourself

If you would like to generate your meshes using Pointwise request a free evaluation today.

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